Former Apple Marketing Guru: ‘Concern and Sadness’ on Jobs

Regis McKenna, the Silicon Valley marketing guru whose company designed the famous multihued Apple logo that has a bite out of it, gave some personal reflections Thursday on the resignation of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO.

In a phone interview, McKenna said his primary reaction to Jobs’s resignation was “concern and sadness for his (Steve’s) health and his family.” McKenna, 71 years old, credits Jobs’s family with having “a great deal” to do with the evolution of the Apple co-founder, noting that Apple now makes many products that “appeal especially to young people.”

McKenna added that he has continued exchanging emails and phone calls with Jobs over the years since the two worked together in the 1980s, with McKenna’s company having plotted marketing strategy for the Apple II computer as well as the original Macintosh. McKenna said he and Jobs have touched on the Apple co-founder’s health, with Jobs telling him at one point that he wasn’t a diabetic. While there were no other details, McKenna said Jobs sometimes alluded to his health, in a way that showed he was “appreciating” life.

McKenna said he “thinks a lot about personal things” when it comes to Jobs. When the iMac debuted in the late 1990s, for instance, McKenna said he bought five of the computers for his grandchildren. One of the iMacs was faulty but the Apple dealer at the time refused to replace the machine, so McKenna said he emailed Jobs about the issue.

“Immediately the phone rang” and it was Jobs on the line, recalls McKenna. Within a few minutes after that, the dealer called back and offered to replace the iMac, McKenna said.

What Jobs has done with Apple “is unique,” said McKenna, adding that “I don’t think the story is over” for the company.